How dumb, you ask? Well, the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature has put forth the Oregon Right to Rest Act [House Bill 3501], which discovers a Constitutional “right” to “use of and free movement within public spaces.” By this finding, the Legislature declares that anyone who lives in “a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings” is entitled to use that space. Moreover, “It is an unlawful practice for any person to deny, refuse, restrict or withhold from a person experiencing homelessness any of the rights listed in section 5 of this 2023 Act [House Bill 3501].” Any homeless person who feels “harassed” by anyone may sue for injunctive relief, including punitive damages, while any “aider or abettor” shall be “jointly and severally liable for all damages awarded…”.
All hail the homeless, a new protected class!
Had this law been in effect in California while the Wood Street slum was being cleared, all progress toward sweeping it would have come to a drastic halt. Every ambulance-chasing lawyer in the region would be demanding “injunctive relief” for their homeless victim-clients. Dragged into the legal dragnet would be “aiders and abettors,” such as the Oakland Police Department, the Oakland Fire Department, and, for all I know, even us, the Coalition for a Better Oakland.
I can’t pretend to get into the head of the legislators who sponsored HB 3501. I suppose they think of themselves as compassionately woke. All the defenders of encampments portray themselves that way. That most ordinary people have examined the matter themselves and come to the conclusion that most of these campers are drug addicts who voluntarily decided to live in the streets and befoul them, is of no concern to these bleeding-heart legislators. They don’t care how many neighborhoods are wrecked; they don’t care that local crime is skyrocketing; they don’t give a damn about small businesses having to shutter their doors because customers are afraid to shop in them. For these woke legislators, the “decriminalization of rest” has become their latest excuse for allowing homeless people to squat anywhere they want, and if the citizens don’t like it, they can go pound sand.
The wokes also use the word “criminalize” with respect to homelessness in general. For example, an opinion piece in the S.F. Chronicle the other day referred to one of the left’s favorite expressions, “criminalizing poverty,” a clever but meaningless term. The opinion piece was written by a progressive who still believes, after all the crime we’ve seen in big cities including Oakland, that we should move money out of the police departments and into “mental health, drug treatment and other social services.” We could spend the entire annual budget of Oakland on those things, but what would it accomplish? The entire city would become nothing more than a gigantic outpatient clinic.
Frankly, I’m tired of being guilt-shamed by progressives who are constantly yammering for more money to spend on homelessness. I’ve watched the homeless in my neighborhood for years, and I really don’t feel sorry for them anymore. They are not good people. They shoot up in public, defecate in the street, throw their garbage on the sidewalks, vomit, overturn garbage bins, break bus stop windows, and are threatening and obnoxious. They have willingly chosen to live outside the norms of civilized culture, which is kind of a declaration of war against those of us who play by the rules. We don’t need to be taking money away from cops and throwing it at this human wreckage; we need to free the cops and get our city back.
Steve Heimoff